Physican assistant is ranked among top jobs for young adults -- Texas Tech offers PA program on campus of Midland College

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The second week of October is National Physician Assistant Week, which shines a light on a rapidly growing field, and one that Forbes, Young Invincibles and U.S. News and World Report ranked as one of the top jobs for young adults in 2015.

Possible reasons for the high ranking is because of the high median salary of more than $93,000 and a projected growth rate of 38 percent, as predicted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Midlanders have access to the field at Texas Tech University’s PA school on the campus of Midland College.

The school receives an average of 1,000 applications a year for its 60-position program, according to Luis Juarez, director of clinical education and assistant professor for the program. Between 52 and 56 students in each class successfully completes the program.

The first year of the 27-month program is primarily didactic and begins in the summer semester; year two is clinical rotations at Tech’s five locations: Midland, Abilene, Amarillo, El Paso and Lubbock. Graduates of the physician assistants program will have a master’s degree and are supervised by a physician.

“We call it a supervising physician but really it’s moving into a corroborating physician, because they’re corroborating professionals,” Juarez said.

PAs can consult, diagnose, treat and prescribe medications, according to the American Academy of Physician Assistants. In Texas, state regulations limit the medications PAs can prescribe, Juarez said.

First-year PA student Robert Blackstone of Albuquerque, New Mexico, said the small class size and the relationship that PAs can establish with patients made Tech’s program desirable.

“(Physicians) have a ton of patients and it’s hard for them to really make a relationship, and I really wanted to make a relationship with the patients I’m seeing,” Blackstone said. “I think with rural patients it’s important to establish a relationship with them so you can not only treat them, but educate them.”

The chief difference between a physician and a PA is that the physician assistant does not complete a residency, Juarez said. PAs are trained in all areas of medicine and so can practice any specialty, whereas a physician chooses a specialty and would have to complete a residency to switch, according to Juarez.

“After about five years, it’s hard to distinguish who is a physician and who is a PA just by observing what they’re doing,” Juarez said.

Tech professors tell students to never misrepresent themselves as doctors but make it clear, once they are licensed, that they are a PA. “(It’s) not because it’s anything against physicians, but to be able to give confidence to the people that regardless of who you go to, your quality of health care is not diminished in any capacity even though the structure of the programs vary by length,” he said.

Blackstone, 24, is younger than the average PA student, who typically is 28. He said he qualified for the program because of “a stroke of luck.” When he was 20, he was hired to work in the University of New Mexico’s hospital ER.

Juarez said that the average age of 28 comes from PA students needing to have a bachelor’s degree and some experience in the medical field before admittance to PA programs.

“PA is becoming a first-choice career, but for many, they do something else in health care and then come back to school to become a PA,” Juarez said. “The whole reason for expecting them to have some previous health care experience is because they essentially have to cover everything in a four-year medical school in three years instead. You need that foundation.”

PAs work in every specialty, according to Blackstone, but the largest chosen specialty is family medicine, which is Blackstone’s, specialty. The AAPA reports that 26.6 percent of all PAs work in family medicine, a specialty needed in the West Texas area.

“I’m one of only four people in the class who is from outside of the state of Texas, so the program really is committed to training people in Texas,” Blackstone said. “The mission statement is to treat the underserved people of West Texas.”

Despite taking less time and having a master’s degree rather than doctorate, PAs complete more credit hours than many medical students depending on their specialty, Juarez said.